Stay Tuned: Race, politics and justice on Shots Fired’

Tuesday

Apr 11, 2017 at 10:47 AMApr 11, 2017 at 10:51 AM

Melissa Crawley More Content Now

“Shots Fired” focuses on a contemporary topic, the aftermath of an officer involved shooting. But unlike many of the incidents that have taken place in recent times, it flips the racial dynamics so that it’s an African American sheriff’s deputy who shoots an unarmed white college student. The action focuses on discovering what really happened, which raises a set of broader questions about the intersection of race, politics and justice. They are questions worth asking even if the show’s answers don’t appear as complex as they could be.

After North Carolina sheriff’s deputy Joshua Beck (Mack Wilds) shoots a white college student he claims was reaching for his gun, the governor calls in the Department of Justice. The DOJ sends Preston Terry (Stephan James), a young, ambitious and idealistic African American prosecutor and seasoned but troubled investigator Ashe Aquino (Sanaa Lathan). Preston and Ashe are introduced separately and the tone that defines them is strikingly different. Preston, a cocky, rising star only a year out of law school, tells his boss that all he cares about is finding the truth and his truth “has no color.” When he is accused of being naive, he responds: “Our own attorney general said that the biggest challenge for all of us in this office is not only to represent and enforce the law but use it to make real the promise of America, the promise of fairness and equality. Is she naive sir? I’m happy to wear that badge with her.” It’s a line that sets in motion Preston’s story arc. Will he survive the events to come with his ideals intact?

Ashe is introduced as a loving mother having a sweet, playful moment with her daughter. The scene is interrupted by another woman who impatiently tells the child to get ready for bed. Ashe explodes in the next room, throws a vase that sails by the woman’s head and screams: “Raise your voice in front of my kid again and I’ll give you a hysterectomy with my fist.” It’s a coarse line that sets up Ashe’s character flaw: She is struggling with an emotionally traumatic event from her time as a police officer and has failed to seek treatment. Will her mental instability derail the case?

The questions the series poses about its main characters personalize them and add tension to the core storyline. Then the show adds one more layer. During the course of their inquiry, Preston and Ashe learn about a black teen’s murder in the same district that was never investigated. Suspecting a cover-up, they decide to pursue both cases and quickly run into resistance from the mostly white sheriff’s department.

The white law enforcement officers appear to be racist. An African American female preacher publicizing the uninvestigated case in the media appears to have a selfish agenda. The white governor appears to care about the optics above everything else. “Shots Fired” is trying to do a lot of things at once. If it pushes past the familiar to include a few surprises and makes strong connections between its plots, the tough questions it’s trying to pose might be answered in the complicated way they deserve.

“Shots Fired” is on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EDT on Fox.

-- Melissa Crawley is the author of “Mr. Sorkin Goes to Washington: Shaping the President on Television’s ‘The West Wing’” and the recently released “The American Television Critic.” She has a Ph.D. in media studies and is a member of the Television Critics Association. To comment on Stay Tuned, email her at staytuned@outlook.com or follow her on Twitter at @MelissaCrawley.